Die Hard 2 | Die Hard Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Die Hard 2 is a 1990 film, the second in the Die Hard series . It stars Bruce Willis , reprising his role as New York police detective John McClane , and co-stars Bonnie Bedelia (reprising her role as Holly McClane ), William Sadler , William Atherton , Dennis Franz , Fred Dalton Thompson and John Amos . McClane is waiting for his wife to land at Dulles International Airport in Washington DC when terrorists take over air controls. He must stop the terrorists before his wife's plane and several other incoming flights that are circling the airport run out of fuel and crash. The movie is based on a novel by Walter Wager entitled 58 Minutes . The novel has the same premise: a cop must stop terrorists who take an airport hostage while his wife's plane circles overhead. He has 58 minutes to do so before the plane crashes. Die Hard 2 was followed by Die Hard with a Vengeance in 1995, Live Free or Die Hard in 2007 and A Good Day to Die Hard in 2013.

While lacking the huge impact of the original, the movie was a box-office success and received a reasonably positive critical reception. Critic Roger Ebert, while noting the not-insubstantial plot credibility problems with the movie, described it as "terrific entertainment." Taglines: Main article: In-depth synopsis of Die Hard 2 The story begins on Christmas Eve 1988, one year after the Nakatomi Plaza incident. John McClane is at Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C. . As he waits for his wife Holly to arrive from California, airport police tow away his in-laws' car and give him a parking ticket. Hanging out at an airport lounge, McClane sees a group of men, dressed in Army fatigues, pass a package between them and disappear into a restricted area. He follows, and a fight ensues in which McClane kills one of the men, but the second man got away. McClane confronts the head of the airport police, the hotheaded Captain Carmine Lorenzo , who dismisses McClane's report as punks stealing luggage, despite the fact that one of the assailants was wielding a rare porcelain gun designed to evade metal detectors.

McClane storms off to investigate on his own, taking fingerprints from the corpse and faxing them to his friend, LAPD officer Al Powell , who runs them through several databases. The resulting records indicates that the man, Sergeant Oswald Cochrane was an American advisor and had been declared officially dead even before the fight, leading McClane to suspect that he had been part of a plot to seize control of the airport. Which is exactly the truth: as weather conditions worsen, a vengeful rogue US Army officer, Colonel Stuart , prepares to hold the approaching planes and their passengers and crew hostage until he can free a former Central American general and drug lord, Ramon Esperanza ; the deposed despot is arriving at the airport under guard. Stuart has set up his operational base in a nearby church after shooting the owner and has hacked directly into Dulles' communications and air traffic control. McClane sneaks into the airport's control tower and confronts the head of air traffic control, Trudeau , just as Stuart commences his operation and takes control of the airport. McClane is chased out from the tower; as he descends in the elevator with reporter Samantha Coleman , she tips him to the presence of Stuart.

McClane slips out of the elevator and into the underground maintenance area of the airport, where he gains assistance from an airport janitor named Marvin . Trudeau and his controllers contact the approaching planes and inform the cabin crews (without mentioning the terrorists) that they must circle the airport. Trudeau’s communications director, Leslie Barnes , takes a team to a new antenna outpost at the skywalk to restore unbugged communication with the planes. He and Lorenzo’s SWAT team are attacked by a detachment of Stuart’s men, result the death in all Five SWAT officers and a lost of one of Stuart's men, Shockley . Fortunately, McClane heard about the auxiliary outpost while in the tower, and just as Barnes is about to be killed, McClane emerges and kills Stuart’s three team members, O'Reilly , Sheldon and Mulkey . Stuart retaliates by crashing a British jet, killing everyone on board, when it severely explodes. Barnes later warns the plans about the terrorist situation using the Outer Marker, the radio beaker without the terrorist's knowledge.

McClane returns to the underground maintenance level, where two-way radio dropped by one of Stuart’s crew tells him that Esperanza is about to arrive in his now-commandeered plane; he has killed his guard and the pilots. McClane rushes to the runway and briefly apprehends Esperanza, before Stuart and his men show up to retrieve the general themselves. McClane kills Thompson and hides in the cockpit of Esperanza’s plane, but Stuart and his crew toss grenades inside, forcing McClane to strap himself into the pilot’s ejector seat and escape the resulting blast by engaging the eject function. An Army Special Forces unit arrives at the airport. Their leader, Major Grant , once served with Stuart and claims to know his tactics. Barnes surmises that Stuart’s command post is near the airport, and he and McClane find the church where Stuart is hiding. Shortly after McClane kills Baker , one of Stuart's guards, Grant and his squad show up and a gunfight ensues. Stuart, his men, and Esperanza escape on snowmobiles. McClane chases after them. He kills Burke and Garber and takes a machine gun in possession, but his new gun proves strangely ineffective.

McClane checks the weapon and finds that the bullets are blanks. McClane returns to the airport security office and announces to Lorenzo that Grant and Stuart are actually working together; for "emphasis" McClane fires his submachine gun (still loaded with blanks) at Lorenzo. Finally convinced, Lorenzo mobilizes his police to converge on the hangar containing the Evergreen Boeing 747 that Stuart has demanded as an escape vehicle. Meanwhile, circling above the airport, Holly has unexpectedly found herself in the same plane as Richard Thornburg , the news reporter who had endangered her and John during their previous meeting . As the terrorists' plans unfold both Holly and Thornburg begin to realize that something is amiss; this culminates in Thornburg listening into the tower radio transmissions, learning about the crisis and making a live news report from aboard the plane. The crowds in the airport are thrown into a panic, which greatly hampers McClane's and Lorenzo's efforts to apprehend Stuart. Holly zaps Thornburg unconscious with a fellow passenger's stun gun. With no way to communicate with the tower, the plane begins to attempt a landing and every one assumes crash positions. At the army truck, Grant kills the soldier not loyal to Stuart's cause.

He and his men meet up with Esperanza, Stuart and his two remaining men, Miller and Kahn at the remote hanger and got onboard the 747. McClane hitches a ride in Coleman's news helicopter to the villains' plane, which is taxiing for takeoff. He manages to jump onto the wing and finds himself in hand-to-hand combat with Major Grant. Grant is sucked through one of the plane’s engines and killed, but Stuart takes up the fight and kicks McClane off the wing. As he falls, McClane opens the fuel hatch on the engine. McClane uses his cigarette lighter to ignite the spilling fuel, which burns right up to the plane even as it takes off, causing it to explode, killing everyone inside and avenging over 200 innocents. It also provides a landing light for the other planes, which all touch down safely. Emergency services arrive and begin evacuating the air passengers, including Holly and a badly-shaken Thornburg. McClane and Holly joyfully reunite, Lorenzo tears up McClane's parking ticket as a Christmas gift, and Marvin takes the couple home. Cast Edit Die Hard 2 is the most successful of the series in the U.S.

market so far. The movie debuted at #1, grossing $21,744,661 in its opening weekend. It went on to finish with $117,540,947 domestically. Overseas the movie grossed $122,000,000, giving it a $239,540,947 worldwide total. It became the 7th biggest hit worldwide in 1990. The critical response, while still positive, wasn't as good as it was for the first film. Die Hard 2 is currently holding a rating of 69% on Rotten Tomatoes while on MetaCritic has a 67/100. The film was highly praised for it's action and effects, and especially applauded for the realism of the plane crash sequence in which a full sized commercial jet plows into the airport runway.

MaximOnline.com named the airplane crash in the film as #2 on its list of "Most Horrific Movie Plane Crashes." [2] Trailers Die Hard 2 (1990) - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 4:34 PM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error John McClane attempts to avert disaster as rogue military operatives seize control of Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.

Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 46 titles created 02 Dec 2011 a list of 45 titles created 07 Oct 2012 a list of 34 titles created 23 Oct 2012 a list of 25 titles created 27 Mar 2014 a list of 27 titles created 01 Jul 2014 Title: Die Hard 2 (1990) 7.1/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. 1 win & 1 nomination. See more awards » Videos John McClane and a Harlem store owner are targeted by German terrorist Simon Gruber in New York City, where he plans to rob the Federal Reserve Building. Director: John McTiernan John McClane and a young hacker join forces to take down master cyber-terrorist Thomas Gabriel in Washington D.C.

Director: Len Wiseman John McClane, officer of the NYPD, tries to save his wife Holly Gennaro and several others that were taken hostage by German terrorist Hans Gruber during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles. Director: John McTiernan John McClane travels to Russia to help out his seemingly wayward son, Jack, only to discover that Jack is a CIA operative working undercover, causing the father and son to team up against underworld forces. Director: John Moore After visiting 2015, Marty McFly must repeat his visit to 1955 to prevent disastrous changes to 1985...without interfering with his first trip. Director: Robert Zemeckis Enjoying a peaceable existence in 1885, Doctor Emmet Brown is about to be killed by Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. Marty McFly travels back in time to save his friend. Director: Robert Zemeckis After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by a desperate village to find a mystical stone. He agrees, and stumbles upon a secret cult plotting a terrible plan in the catacombs of an ancient palace.

Director: Steven Spielberg 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X A seemingly indestructible humanoid cyborg is sent from 2029 to 1984 to assassinate a waitress, whose unborn son will lead humanity in a war against the machines, while a soldier from that war is sent to protect her at all costs. Director: James Cameron A cybernetic warrior from a post-apocalyptic future travels back in time to protect a 25-year old drifter and his future wife from a most advanced robotic assassin and to ensure they both survive a nuclear attack. Director: Jonathan Mostow A research team is sent to the Jurassic Park Site B island to study the dinosaurs there while another team approaches with another agenda. Director: Steven Spielberg Famed archaeologist/adventurer Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones is called back into action when he becomes entangled in a Soviet plot to uncover the secret behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls. Director: Steven Spielberg A man is picked up by a fishing boat, bullet-riddled and suffering from amnesia, before racing to elude assassins and regain his memory.

Director: Doug Liman Edit Storyline After the terrifying events in LA, John McClane (Willis) is about to go through it all again. A team of terrorists, led by Col. Stuart (Sadler) is holding the entire airport hostage. The terrorists are planning to rescue a drug lord from justice. In order to do so, they have seized control of all electrical equipment affecting all planes. With no runway lights available, all aircraft have to remain in the air, with fuel running low, McClane will need to be fast. Written by Film_Fan John McClane is back in the wrong place at the wrong time! See more » Genres: 4 July 1990 (USA) See more » Also Known As: 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)| Dolby Stereo (35 mm prints) (4 channels) Color: Did You Know? Trivia Don Harvey , the actor who plays Garber, Colonel Stuart's second-in-command, played a bar patron in the film Striking Distance (1993), also starring Bruce Willis .

See more » Goofs The first time Samantha Coleman's helicopter is shown, the side reads "Night-Time News." The second time, there is no hyphen. See more » Quotes Grant : [McClane has just returned from a brutal fight with a terrorist] McClane! You alright? You want a medic? Carmine Lorenzo : McClane, what the hell do you think you're doing out there, huh? Playing John Wayne? How'd ya like to spend the rest of the night in a cell? Grant : Lorenzo, shut the fuck up and do something useful! Carmine Lorenzo : Hey! You can't talk to me like that! Grant : Oh no, Carmine? Sergeant, get this bureaucrat out of Mr. McClane's face! Now! See more » Frequently Asked Questions (United States) – See all my reviews First reason why this is better than the original.. SNOW.. and lot's of it,, the story is set in Christmas time, so you got to have snow,, love the idea of the bad guys taking over a whole entire airport,, now that is neat, i've been to Dulles more times than i care to remember,, though i don't remember the Annex Skywalk..

so this movie just rocks on all levels,, the bad guys,, and there are lot's of em,, are pretty sneaky, and clever in this one,, Bonnie Bedalia returns as Bruce Ex-wife, but as usual don't have to much to do in here, i loved the fact that Dennis Franz was in this movie,, he is such an underrated actor,, he is so funny, and i love every minute that i see him on the big screen. Bruce has lots of funny moments in this one, he has to be sort of like McGyver in this one,, trying to come up with different ways to outwit the street smart terrorists, and o yeah there is a twist in this movie,, but i can't ruin it ,, in good conscience. 31 of 53 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes 1. Which Christmas item was invented by Tom Smith in 1847? - Jade Wright - Liverpool Echo 1. Which Christmas item was invented by Tom Smith in 1847? 2. Which nickname for Hollywood sounds Christmassy? Share Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email 2.

Which nickname for Hollywood sounds Christmassy? 3. In the film Die Hard 2, which airport did the terrorist take over on Christmas Eve? 4. What is the Zodiac sign for Christmas Day? 5. What is the name of the ocean current that appears every five to eight years around Christmas off of the Pacific coast of South America? 6. In which American state would you find Bethlehem? 7. Which Christmas carol demands figgy pudding? 8. Which British territory was captured on Christmas Day 1941? 9. Which duo dressed up as Batman and Robin in their 1996 Christmas TV special? 10. The Dutch Father Christmas is accompanied by whom? ANSWERS: 1. The Christmas cracker; 2. Tinseltown; 3. Dulles International Airport (Washington DC); 4. Capricorn; 5. El Nino; 6. Pennsylvania; 7. We Wish You A Merry Christmas; 8. Hong Kong; 9. Del and Rodney Trotter, (Only Fools And Horses); 10.

Black Peter Like us on Facebook Most Read Most Recent Die Hard 2 | Christmas Specials Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Die Hard 2 (sometimes referred to as Die Hard 2: Die Harder) [1] is a 1990 American action film, and the second in the Die Hard film series . It was directed by Renny Harlin , and stars Bruce Willis as John McClane . The film co-stars Bonnie Bedelia (reprising her role as Holly McClane), William Sadler , Art Evans , William Atherton (reprising his role as Richard "Dick" Thornburg), Franco Nero , Dennis Franz , Fred Thompson , John Amos , and Reginald VelJohnson , returning briefly in his role as Sgt. Al Powell from the first film . The screenplay was written by Steven E. de Souza and Doug Richardson , adapted from Walter Wager 's novel 58 Minutes . The novel has the same premise but differs slightly: A cop must stop terrorists who take an airport hostage while his daughter's plane circles overhead. He has 58 minutes to do so before the plane crashes.

Roderick Thorp , who wrote the novel Nothing Lasts Forever , upon which Die Hard was based, receives credit for creating "certain original characters", although his name is misspelled onscreen as "Roderick Thorpe". [ show ] Plot On Christmas Eve, one year after the Nakatomi Tower Incident, John McClane is waiting at Washington Dulles International Airport for his wife Holly to arrive from Los Angeles, California . Reporter Richard Thornburg, who exposed Holly's identity to Hans Gruber in the first movie, is assigned a seat across the aisle from her. While in the airport bar, McClane spots two men in army fatigues carrying a package; one of the men has a gun. Suspicious, he follows them into the baggage area. After a shootout, he kills one of the men while the other escapes. Learning the dead man is a mercenary thought to have been killed in action, McClane believes he's stumbled onto a nefarious plot. He relates his suspicions to airport police Captain Carmine Lorenzo, but Lorenzo refuses to listen and has McClane thrown out of his office. Former U.S.

Army Special Forces Colonel Stuart and other members of his unit set up a base in a church near Dulles after executing the church's custodian. They take over the air traffic control systems, cutting off communication to the planes, and seize control of the airport. Their goal is to rescue General Ramon Esperanza, a drug lord and the dictator of Val Verde , who is being extradited to the United States to stand trial on drug trafficking charges. They demand a Boeing 747 cargo plane so they can escape to another country, and warn the airport's controllers not to try to restore control. Upon learning of this, McClane realizes his wife is on one of the planes circling above Washington, D.C. with too little fuel to be redirected, and will likely crash if the terrorists remain in control. He prepares to fight the terrorists, allying himself with a janitor, Marvin, to gain larger access to the airport. Dulles communications director Leslie Barnes heads to the unfinished Annex Skywalk with a SWAT team to re-establish communications with the planes. Stuart's henchmen, disguised as airport employees, ambush the group at a chokepoint, killing the SWAT team.

With Marvin's help, McClane reaches the massacre via air duct and, after a shootout, rescues Barnes and kills Stuart's men. When Stuart learns of this, he responds by recalibrating the instrument landing system and then impersonating air traffic controllers to crash a British jet, killing all 230 passengers and crew on board the aircraft. In response, a U.S. Army Special Forces team is called in, led by Major Grant. A two-way radio dropped by one of Stuart's henchmen tips McClane that Esperanza is landing. Again with Marvin's aid, McClane gets there before Stuart's henchmen, but Stuart traps him in Esperanza's transport plane and throws grenades into the cockpit. McClane escapes via the ejection seat just as the aircraft explodes. Barnes is then able to help McClane locate the mercenaries' hideout and they tell Grant and his team to raid the location. However, the mercenaries escape on snowmobiles during a shootout between Grant's team and Stuart's men. McClane pursues them, killing two more mercenaries and taking a snowmobile, but the gun he picked up does not work as Stuart shoots at the snowmobile causing it to explode.

He realizes that the gun contained blanks and that the mercenaries and Special Forces are working together. McClane contacts Lorenzo to send out officers to intercept the Boeing 747 in which the mercenaries are planning to escape, proving his story by firing at Lorenzo with the blank gun. A suspicious Thornburg is already monitoring airport radio traffic, and learns about the situation from a secret transmission to the circling planes from Barnes. Barricading himself in the airplane lavatory, he phones in a sensational and exaggerated take on what is happening at Dulles, leading to panic in the airport and preventing the officers from reaching the plane. Listening to Thornberg's live report, Holly enters the lavatory and subdues Thornburg with a tazer. McClane hitches a ride on a news helicopter that drops him off on the left wing of the mercenary plane and he blocks the ailerons with his jacket, preventing the plane from taking off. Grant emerges and fights McClane, but is sucked into the jet engine and killed. Stuart comes out to fight next, and succeeds in knocking McClane off the plane, but not before McClane knocks open the fuel hatch.

After landing, McClane uses his cigarette lighter to ignite the trail of leaking fuel, which races down the runway to the wing, ignites the rest of the fuel and destroys the jet, killing all on board. The passenger planes, circling in the air, use the lighted trail to land, and McClane and his wife are reunited. Cast John Amos as Major Grant, the head of the U.S. Army Special Forces team Production and promotion Die Hard 2 was the first film to use digitally composited live-action footage with a traditional matte painting that had been photographed and scanned into a computer. It was used for the last scene, which took place on a runway. [2] One of the writers of the screenplay, Steven E. de Souza, later admitted in an interview for the book Action Speaks Louder: Violence, Spectacle, and the American Action Movie that the villains were based on America's "Central American" meddling, primarily the Iran–Contra affair . [3] The Kincheloe Air Force Base was used for filming. Other scenes were shot at the Alpena Airport in Northern Michigan.

The location was chosen in part because of its propensity for snowfall, but due to a lack of snow before and during filming artificial snow had to be used. [4] Other scenes were shot at Denver's Stapleton Airport, at Universal Studios and the lot at 20th Century Fox in Los Angeles. Soundtrack Michael Kamen , the composer for the first film, also composed the score for Die Hard 2. Kamen reprises several music cues from his Die Hard score (most notably during the action sequences), as well as adapting Jean Sibelius 's " Finlandia " (in a similar fashion to his incorporation of Beethoven's 9th Symphony into the score for Die Hard). The end credits of this film begin with the Christmas song " Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow " (performed by Vaughn Monroe ), as they did in Die Hard. Unlike the previous film, a soundtrack album was released by Varèse Sarabande . Reception Commercial response The film exceeded all expectations by actually outdoing the massive box office success of Die Hard.

It had a budget of US$70 million and had a wide release in 2,507 theaters, making $21.7 million its opening weekend. Die Hard 2 has domestically made $117.5 million and $239.5 million worldwide, almost doubling that of Die Hard. Critical reception The film received a positive critical reception; it garnered a 66% 'Fresh' rating, with an average score of three stars on five based on 47 film critic reviews, at the aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes . Roger Ebert , who gave the original Die Hard a negative review, described the sequel as "terrific entertainment", despite noting the substantial credibility problems with the plot. [5] Jay Boyar of Orlando Sentinel dubbed the film as being as disappointing a sequel as Another 48 Hours and Robocop 2 were and described the film as having "Whatever small pleasure there is to be found in this loud dud is due mostly to the residual good feelings from the first film... As played by Bruce Willis, McClane is still an engaging character, even if he is much less amusingly drawn this time.

Willis is in there trying, but the qualities that helped to make his character sympathetic in the first film are missing. McClane no longer worries openly about his personal safety, as he did in the original movie. His quasi-cowboy personality from Die Hard is all but forgotten - he has become more of a Rambo and less of a Roy Rogers. And though the filmmakers try to establish McClane as resistant to advanced technology, this promising idea isn't developed." [6] Empire Magazine delivered a 3/5 star rating to the film while stating "It's entertaining nonsense that doesn't quite manage to recapture the magic of the original. Still, there are some nice moments here, and Willis is on solid ground as the iconic McClane." [7] Maxim magazine ranked the plane crash #2 on its list of "Greatest Movie Plane Crashes". [8] References ↑ The film's on-screen title is Die Hard 2, and the film's official website referred to it as such.

The film's original advertising used "Die Harder" as a tagline, and many releases of the film (e.g.the 2006 DVD release and 2007 Blu-ray Disc release) came out under the title Die Hard 2: Die Harder. Several other official sources, such as the director's website and the Die Hard Trilogy video game, also refer to it as Die Hard 2: Die Harder. Settling the Argument Once & For All: Why Die Hard Absolutely is a Christmas Movie | Mediaite Settling the Argument Once & For All: Why Die Hard Absolutely is a Christmas Movie by Joe Concha | 4:10 pm, December 24th, 2015 video Welcome to the party, pal! The debates are over, at least for now. Congress has gone home . The president is in Hawaii. Barring a breaking story or Steve Harvey guest-refereeing Chargers-Raiders Thursday night, the news (and publications like this that cover the news) will be a snooze for about the next two weeks.

So what better way to kick off the slow season than finally tackling (in this space, anyway) the age-old question heard often at Christmas time lately: Is Die Hard really, really a Christmas movie? Note: We’re not talking Die Hard 2, which also takes place Christmas Eve largely at Dulles Airport apparently one year after Part 1. We’re also not talking Die Hard 3, 4 or 5 (yes, the last two actually exist), because those all take place in what looks like summer. In the minds of many, there’s really been only one Die Hard… just like there’s really been only one Caddyshack, one Meatballs, one Fletch and two Godfathers. As we’ve seen all too often, some sequels are so far removed from the original, they should be stealth-edited from existence. So why should the original Die Hard be put into the category as one of the greatest Christmas movies of all-time? Here’s a few reasons: 1) The movie was released in 1988 and is arguably the best action movie of the past 30 years.

As far as it being a Christmas movie, the date of the release in ’88 poses an interesting question: Can a flick that came out in July (July 15, 1988 to be exact) really be associated with Christmas? Those in the Of-Course-Die-Hard-Isn’t-A-Christmas-Movie camp will point to this fact as checkmate for the argument against. Fair enough. But it should be noted that Miracle on 34th Street was released in May of 1947. The relatively lesser-known Holiday Inn (Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire) — which gets a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes – was released in August of ’42. So does a Christmas movie need to be released around Christmas? Nope. 2) The premise of the movie (besides the whole heist thing) is Bruce Willis’ John McClane attempting to patch things up with his family, who live on the West Coast (McClane is an NYC cop). Now… could McClane have traveled to Los Angeles to make this effort at other times of the year? Sure.

But as villain Hans Gruber (the great Alan Rickman) says, “It’s Christmas… it’s the time for miracles.” Given the rocky relationship McClane and his separated wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) apparently have (she had already gone back to having her maiden name on display on her door at the office), an argument can be made that only the power of Christmas is enough to get the stubborn McClane to fly across the country to see her and his young children. 3) Hans needs the Nakatomi Building (in real-life, Fox Plaza) basically empty to pull off the $640 million heist. After all, a group of well-armed, well-funded and well-dressed terrorists (Hans claims to know the guy who sold Arafat his suits) don’t just walk into a major corporate office building and take over quietly — only needing to murder one security officer at the front desk — without it being a very slow night there. It should also be noted that Hans needs Nakatomi CEO Joseph Takagi (James Shigeta) to be present to get codes to an elaborate safe only he knows, and an elaborate Christmas party hosted by him at the office guarantees that.

Note: This very point also shows how fundamentally flawed Die Hard is. As you’ll see below, I once appeared on Fox’s Red Eye to discuss this very topic. My dark conclusion was that Takagi deserved to die simply for scheduling a Christmas party on friggin’ Christmas Eve (from experience, 99 percent of company parties happen days, even weeks before December 24th). All of that said, the only way Hans and the gang can successfully pull off this robbery is on Christmas Eve when all employees attending can be contained/held hostage on one single floor. 4) Christmas-themed wrapping tape plays a huge role in the final outcome: The almost-final climatic scene has McClane in a pickle: His wife is being held at gunpoint by Hans. There’s another terrorist (who is totally a dead-ringer for Huey Lewis) also there and also armed. McClane appears to surrender, dropping his machine gun at Hans’s request to avoid his wife being killed. But John has a trick up his sleeve (or in this case, his back), as he uses said Christmas tape to secure a handgun near his neck that can be quickly accessed thanks to him putting his hands behind his head while surrendering.

It all ends with Hans with a bullet in the stomach and eventually falling out a 30th story window (nearly taking Holly with him), and Huey taking a bullet in the head before he realizes what’s happening. Without the Christmas tape handy, Hans and Huey are on a beach earning 20 percent. 5) Some of the better quotes in the film are centered around Christmas (and Let it Snow plays at the end going into the closing credits): McClane (written on dead terrorist’s sweatshirt and sent down to Hans in an elevator): “Now I have a machine gun. Ho-Ho-Ho.” McClane: You throw quite a party. I didn’t realize they celebrated Christmas in Japan. Takagi: Hey, we’re flexible. Pearl Harbor didn’t work out so we got you with tape decks. Hans: You ask for miracles? I give you the (slowed down for effect) F-B-I. Theo: All right, listen up guys. ‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except… the four a**holes coming in the rear in standard two-by-two cover formation.

Argyle (De’voreaux White) the limo driver (while loading the McClanes into the car and looking up at a damaged Nakatomi at the end of the movie and oblivious to the violence and death that transpired): If this is their idea of Christmas, I’ve got to be here for New Year’s. In the end, Die Hard is a Christmas movie, and a tremendous one at that. The debate has raged on for 27 years, it will continue for Christmases to come. From everyone here at Mediaite, have a holly, jolly Christmas. It’s the best time of the year. There may be little media or news to write about, but perhaps that’s a good thing… at least for a week or two. — — Follow Joe Concha on Twitter @JoeConchaTV This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author. Follow Mediaite Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990) Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990) Die Hard Films The 'Die Hard' Films - Part 2 Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990) d.

Renny Harlin, 124 minutes Film Plot Summary The film opened on Christmas Eve, with average guy and LAPD cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) at the snowed-in Washington Dulles Int'l Airport curb, where his car was ticketed and being towed for illegal parking. [He had moved from NY to LA to join his wife who had taken a job there, from the last film.] A TV news broadcast in the terminal, with cutaways to a local hotel room where Colonel Stuart (William Sadler) was seen, described how deposed South American dictator Ramon Esperanza (Franco Nero) from the Republic of Valverde would be delivered for immediate extradition to the US (arriving at Dulles Airport in about three and a half hours). He had been supported by US money and advisors only a few years earlier to fight against Communist insurgents, with illegally supplied weapons despite a Congressional ban. He had used the funding to engage in cocaine smuggling and was being brought to the US for trial on racketeering, bribery, and drug running charges. It appeared that an elite band of armed, hired terrorist mercenaries, led by former U.S.

Army Special Forces Colonel Stuart, were converging on the airport and awaiting Esperanza's arrival. McClane was also awaiting the arrival of his wife's inbound plane from Los Angeles, about a half hour late in landing. [Another passenger on her plane was ambitious LA TV reporter Richard "Dick" Thornburg (William Atherton). After Holly had assaulted him at the end of the previous film, he brought a restraining order against her to keep her 50 yards away at all times.] In the nearby Hidey Lake Community Church, two men posing as DWP electrical workers in orange uniforms killed the church's pastor, and then radioed that the "clubhouse" was open - it would serve as a base of operations for the fanatical Colonel Stuart. Back at the airport, McClane followed suspicious looking men with a package into a restricted baggage area. When he asked for ID, he found himself in a shootout and brutal fistfight with both men. He killed one of them (named Cochrane) on a baggage conveyor belt, but the other one escaped when McClane was mistaken by the cops as one of the bad guys. Inept, bullheaded, airport security chief Capt.

Carmine Lorenzo (Dennis Franz) reprimanded McClane was breaking various airport rules and regulations, and for using his gun. On the other hand, McClane was perturbed that the crime scene area wasn't sealed off, while Lorenzo beefed sarcastically: "Hell, let's shut down the whole f--king airport!" McClane feared that a larger job was about to happen, since the bad guys used a Glock 7 porcelain gun. He obtained crude fingerprints from the deceased mercenary and faxed them to Twinkie-eating, LA police officer Sgt. Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson). Powell phoned back with the suspicious results: the deceased Sgt. Oswald Cochrane, an American advisor in Honduras, had been dead for two years - killed in a helicopter accident in 1988! The deteriorating blizzard weather conditions and reduced visibility caused the airport's Chief of Air Operations Trudeau (Fred Thompson) to order incoming planes to be slowed down and to circle the airport.

McClane reported his findings to Trudeau, and warned: "Somebody's about to seriously f--k with this airport." He suspected that professional mercenaries were awaiting the arrival of the "world's biggest drug dealer" - meanwhile, Stuart's base of operations remotely took over the airport's control tower communications and shut off the runway lights. Incoming planes about to land were diverted as Trudeau ordered: "Stack 'em, pack 'em, and rack 'em." He then worried about planes running out of fuel in a few hours: "They're gonna be dropping on the White House lawn." Colonel Stuart contacted the Dulles airport control tower, informing Trudeau that a plane landing in 58 minutes would be carrying Esperanza. It was to land and remain unapproached on an isolated runway. He also demanded a fully-fueled 747 cargo conversion plane to be at his disposal, and warned the controllers to not attempt to restore their systems. Despite the stern warnings, Dulles communications director Leslie Barnes (Art Evans) plotted to use the newly-installed communication transmitters at the unfinished Annex Skywalk to try to re-establish air traffic communications with the delayed, incoming planes.

McClane thought to himself: "How can the same s--t happen to the same guy twice?" As he approached the Annex Skywalk, Barnes was accompanied by a SWAT team, but they were ambushed by Stuart's mercenaries. Everyone but Barnes was killed by the time McClane arrived through a ventilation shaft - he dispatched with Stuart's men, including O'Reilly (Robert Patrick) who was about to shoot Barnes. Their plan to set up the antenna array was derailed when the apparatus was blown up - and McClane knew they were in trouble: "Bait, jerk us off, make Lorenzo sacrifice his best men. Make you waste your time, time we don't have." Angered that his own men had been eliminated, Stuart threatened Trudeau for disobedience. "To pay the penalty," he demonstrated his ruthlessness ("Watch this") by deliberating preparing to crash a Windsor Flight # 114 British jetliner on a flight path onto the runway with its ground level re-calibrated 200 feet lower.

McClane attempted to circumvent the impending crash by lighting hand-held torches and signaling the plane as it landed, but he failed - everyone was killed on board (Stuart gloated: "That concludes our object lesson for this evening"). A special government Army platoon unit was called upon to assist in the crisis -- a counter-terrorist team known as Special Forces "Blue Light" led by Major Grant (John Amos), who vowed about Stuart: "Now we're here to take Colonel Stuart down. And we will take him down. You see, I served with him. I taught him everything he knows." McClane was skeptical: "Did things just get better or worse?" Using airphones, some of the planes were alerted, and others with enough fuel were diverted to Atlanta, but there were still a number of planes circling Dulles. Barnes was able to change the outer marker beacon transmission to voice (rather than a beep) to alert the planes that terrorists had taken over, and to warn planes not to respond to his broadcast. McClane realized that he had a two-way radio from one of Stuart's downed mercenaries in the luggage area, and was capable of hearing Stuart's communications to his men.

He learned that Esperanza's plane had just appeared on the scope - and that Stuart was lighting a runway for its arrival. Onboard Esperanza's plane, the deposed dictator escaped from his chains and held a gun on the pilots of his plane, as they were ordered to land on runway 1-5 - he forced them to comply with Stuart's demands. But then he killed both pilots, as the plane lost cabin pressure when a bullet pierced the windshield, and visibility was near zero. On the two-way radio, McClane overheard that Esperanza was making a visual landing on a different runway (2-5 right), and hurried there. After the plane landed, the dictator opened the door and declared: "Freedom" as McClane greeted him with a punch to the jaw. Gunfire erupted as Stuart and his men arrived to pick up Esperanza, but McClane was able to wound the dictator in the shoulder. McClane was trapped in the cockpit, which became riddled by bullets. When grenades were thrown into the cockpit through smashed windows, McClane ejected himself and parachuted to safety, as fire trucks arrived. Stuart and Esperanza escaped.

Major Grant was angered by McClane's actions, telling him: "You're the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time." McClane replied: "The story of my life." Meanwhile, on board Holly's plane, reporter Thornburg had learned about the terrorist plot through one of his broadcast receivers he had with him, and phoned his newsroom to report the emergency situation. Barnes and McClane surmised that the mercenaries had taken over the church near the west side of the airport as their base of operations, and prepared to raid it. Barnes radioed to tell Lorenzo (and Grant) to provide backup support - they quickly arrived to surround the building, but the mercenaries (and Esperanza) escaped on snowmobiles after wiring the building and their equipment to explode with booby-traps. With McClane in pursuit, he killed a few of the men - and followed on one of the snowmobiles. He accidentally discovered that the mercenaries' guns were firing blank ammunition (their cartridges were marked with blue tape; live ammo was marked with red tape). He was astonished to realize that the Special Forces men and the mercenaries appeared to be working together.

Stuart, Esperanza and the others on snowmobiles proceeded to Hangar 11 to board the prepared 747 plane. Aspiring network reporter Thornburg's report, phoned in, about the terrorist takeover of Dulles ("The truth is terrifying") caused a mass panic at the airport. Lorenzo eventually believed McClane when he reported that Grant was working together with Stuart: "They're gonna get on the same goddamn plane with him and take off with him...When the army canned Stuart, he must have loaded that unit with his own men," and that the firefight at the church was only a "sideshow." Lorenzo ordered his men to wear full body armor and assemble with weaponry to intercept the 747 plane ("It's time to kick ass") at Hangar 11, although they were stymied by the crowds exiting the airport. McClane found a newscopter reporter at the airport, Samantha Coleman (Sheila McCarthy), and hitched a ride to Hangar 11, where they found that the plane was already headed for the runway and almost ready to take off. At the same time, Holly's Northeast Airlines plane was attempting an emergency landing due to its low fuel situation.

In the climactic ending, McClane attempted to thwart the take-off of Stuart's plane (with mercenaries, Major Grant and Esperanza onboard). From the copter, he was dropped onto the 747's left wing, where Grant emerged ("I'll do him") and confronted him, resulting in Grant being bloodily sucked into a cylindrical jet engine after a fight with McClane atop the wing. The getaway plane exploded when McClane (after being kicked off the plane by Stuart) ignited the jet's trail of fuel (from its opened hatch) with his lighter, after speaking his famous line: "Yippie-kai-yay, motherf--ker!" After the explosion, he yelled: "Holly, here's your f--kin' landing light! Whoo!" All of the stranded, circling planes landed using the light of the explosion as a guide, as the film concluded. McClane was happily reunited with his wife as she jumped onto an emergency landing chute to the snowy runway and they embraced, while emergency crews arrived.

She asked: "Why does this keep happening to us?" He responded: "Let's go home." Lorenzo drove up and ripped up McClane's parking ticket, shouting: "It's Christmas!" The film ended with the familiar tune, "Let It Snow" sung by Bing Crosby. Film Notables (Awards, Facts, etc.) Based on Walter Wager's novel 58 Minutes. This sequel was set in 1990, about one year after the events of the original film, again on Christmas Eve. From a production budget of approximately $70 million, the film's box-office was $117 million (domestic) and $239 million (worldwide). The film was criticized for its preposterous, illogical situation and factual impossibilities that wouldn't occur in real life. Lt. John McClane

Question: In the film 'Die Hard 2', which airport did the terrorist take over on Christmas Eve?
Answer: Washington Dulles International Airport